This invention generally relates to the field of business tools and processes. More specifically a process for managing and optimizing complex plurality of computers, software and interconnects in a heterogeneous IT system.
The present invention relates to the field of business solutions development, and in particular to the provision of an automated method, system and program product for evaluating particular aspects of a business enterprise and business-related requirements of the enterprise which may, for example, include information technology (IT) requirements, and efficiently developing a business solution deliverables such as an IT system proposal based upon an articulated set of those requirements. Advantageously, the present invention may be utilized to modify an existing business environment (such as an existing IT infrastructure) to more closely coincide with articulated business requirements or to develop a new business system (such as a new IT infrastructure) coincident with those requirements. Specifically, the present invention creates uses a data structure and input means to organize IT Asset inventories for analysis, and provides means to perform analysis of the inventory to the advantage of the asset owners.
IBM embraced/accepted BSA as a method for doing business. IBM renamed the Consultative Sales portion of the BSA to xe2x80x9cALIGNxe2x80x9d. The ISLAND Analysis process became a primary component of the Server Consolidation business model.
The proliferation of information processing solutions available to a business enterprise has proven advantageous most modern enterprises, providing an opportunity to apply the benefits of computer processing technology to most every area of the enterprise and accordingly to better service customers in a more efficient manner. However, the value provided by these myriad advances in information technology has come at a cost, specifically the burden of managing the many disparate IT solutions that have been integrated into different areas of the typical business enterprise.
As IT expands throughout the enterprise, demand for IT consultant services has concomitantly surged to address the burgeoning complexities of managing the corporate IT infrastructure. Within this growing market the complexities inherent in effectively identifying pertinent IT solutions required by a business customer and mapping those IT needs to the skills and solutions offered by a particular solution provider, the so-called Business Solutions Assessment (BSA) process, has proven to be an equally complicated endeavor, mismanagement of which may translate directly into lost business opportunities for a solution provider. As the types of IT solutions available to the business customer continually expand, IT solution providers are increasingly challenged by encounters with potential customers utilizing technologies which are outside the traditional areas supported by the provider. Alternatively, the success of a multifaceted solutions provider may be impeded by limitations in the solutions experience of a particular marketing representative in contact with a potential customer. For example, a customer who has clearly defined needs in the area of business intelligence (BI) may not be well-served by a marketing professional with experience in the area of server consolidation solutions notwithstanding the fact that his company does in fact provide BI solutions. Consequently, a successful BSA implementation would provide readily accessible support to enable a marketing professional to draw upon the entire breadth of the solution set offered by his company.
In the typical BSA scenario, the potential customer faces a number of IT challenges, some more pressing than others, in various areas of IT. It would be advantageous to enable a solutions provider representative to prioritize these needs by assessing their impact on the customer""s business and to map these prioritized needs against the solutions provided by his/her company to determine which needs best matched the solutions provided thereby. At the onset of the BSA undertaking is an initial customer engagement process. During this critical period, the ability to establish credibility with the customer, and to ensure that all parties involved have a clear understanding of the business benefits which will result from the engagement and their relevance to the needs of the customer is of paramount importance. Ultimately, it is in both the customer""s and provider""s best business interest to qualify the project prior to investing too much resource in an endeavor. Accordingly, the ideal solution assessment process will enable the customer to make informed decision about the proffered solutions early in a project, while establishing the proper expectations, roles and responsibilities for all parties involved. Often this will entail a proof of concept undertaking to demonstrate the feasibility of the project and the creation of a high-level work plan for the project.
The ideal BSA process addresses questions regarding the risk to be shared between the customer and the solution provider, the resources required, the approximate cost in money and time and the reasonably expected benefits of the endeavor. Currently, these issues are addressed in an ad-hoc fashion based upon the skills of the particular marketing team and the business knowledge and experience of the customer involved in the undertaking. It is clear that a well-articulated approach to this process would better serve all parties involved.
Other solutions have proposed the use of computer-based expert system to provide a ready interface for a consultation client. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,006,998 entitled Computer System With Easy Input Means For Consultation, teaches a computer system suitable for consultation in such a case where plans are to be created while a concurrent dialogue is undertaken with a client asking for advice. It distinguishes over prior art system which required that a full set of customer inputs were initially secured prior to providing a response to the customer, which suffer the disadvantage of not having facilities for addressing the customers questions which may arise in providing input to the system. The patent further teaches the inclusion of advertisements within the series of interactive inquiries addressed to the client which may additionally be responded to by the client. Accordingly, the patent is focused on the facilitation of the interaction between a computer and a client, but fails to teach the implementation of a system or method for engagement with a client wherein increasingly detailed client data regarding a potential IT solution is interactively applied against a knowledge base to enable generation an IT business solution proposal. In other areas, U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,305 covering a System And Method For Evaluating Real Estate, teaches providing a quantitative evaluation of a real estate interest owned by a business entity via the processing of numerical data assigned to various real estate valuations such as utilization indices, and revenues of the entity owning the property to calculate a score attributable to the property, which reflects a quantitative evaluation of the real estate. This patent is a specific expert system tailored to address the intricacies of the real estate industry to place a numerical valuation on the on a given property, it does not address the complex issues involved in exploring the various facets of a customer""s IT infrastructure as well as the business environment and needs goals of that customer to devise IT solutions which best meet the determined needs.
From the foregoing it can be seen that a need exists for an IT-based solution which addresses these and other related issues concerning the BSA. Such a solution would use IT in the form of an automate set of electronic questionnaires tied to modeling tools and a knowledge base to assist in addressing these issues, and provide a manageable framework to a systematic BSA process. More specifically, the ideal automated solution should enable the implementation of a series of assessment processes designed to ensure that the proper analysis is conducted in the course of undertaking a Business Solution Assessment.
The referenced invention provides such a solution but has the disadvantages that the partitioning criteria used to identify subdivisions or xe2x80x9cIslandsxe2x80x9d of the assets in question must be such that the entire structure can be divided and scored according to the criteria. This limits flexibility in determining the types of criteria. The use of scoring limits the identification and evaluation of individual islands of opportunity on criteria that are not widely applicable.
The foregoing shortcomings of the prior art are addressed and further advantageous features provided by the present invention which entails the use interactive relational databases to provide dynamic analysis of a complex IT installation.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a novel structure for analyzing an IT system.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method for maintaining a customized tool for optimizing an IT system.
These and other objects of the invention are provided by a system employing relational databases in conjunction with query management in an IT environment.